Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-12-19
LIFE IN HONDURAS.
Strange Customs That Prevail in
flac VILLAGES of she CarEbs,

4
Strange Customs That Prevail in
shc Villages of the Caribs.
The approaches from the interior O
| Honduras TO Truxillo are mere trails
through the mountains. The only
means of transportation is by pacl
mules. Most Of the houses in
| Truxillo are long. low-roofed, one.
story dwellings built of stone
and mortar, cool and we'll adapted
to the climate. Very substantial,
am told they are; indeed, some Of
them have been standing hundreds
of years. They are anything but
picturesque looking, being totally un.
ornamented on the outside. 1t seemed
to me that all the houses looked alike
in fact, an air of sameness pervades
th- place
The surrounding scenery, on the
other hand, compensates for the dull
ness, and makes beautiful frame for
a very plain picture.
Behind the town is high range of
mountains tt'ickly wooded, with little
streamlets trickling down to the sea.
In the valleys on either side are Carib
villages--one the village on the Rio
Crystallis, the other on the Rio Negro.
We visited the Carib town ON the Rio
CRYSTALS and found it much larger
settlement than it appeared to be-.
The so-called Caribs are, properly
speaking, not Caribs, but are the de-
scendants of an African tribe. Yet
they most decidedly object to being
classed as negroes, and boast that
they have never been slaves. They
are qnite like the ordinary negro,
with this exception, that they are
scrupulously clean about their per-
sons.
AS is common among most peoples
of rude civil cation, the women are
the drudges. They are the h.-wers OF
wood and the drawers of water. and
it is not uncommon to see mother
padding dory load OF bananas. with
her infant squatting in the bottom of
the boat.
When man among the Carihs
wishes to take unto himself wife,
he news himself out dory, and with
the assistance of his friends and q jug
of rum, gathers together the where
withal to build his hut. which con-
sists of a few poles, l'ile OF clay to
form the floor and to fill in the Wi ker
work sides of his house. and some
leaves of the cohune palm to thatch
the roof with. He then clears off
patch of ground and plants few ears
of corn and casava root. This he
calls his plantation. He is then con-
sidered an eligible swain, and is in a
position to choose a partner from
among the dusky maidens.
The plantation is entirely looked
after by the woman. She gathers
the corn to make tortillas, and digs
the cassava root to make her bread.
l visited Carib house and watched
the operation of cassava bread max
ing. They first wash the root, then
grate it on a board studded with
small, sharp particles of flint to
form rough surface; then
strain it in order to extract
the surplus juice, which is con-
sidered poisonous. Their mode Of
straining is extremely primitive. The
article used as q strainer is long,
snake-lke arrangement, made from a
species of palmetto grass plated to-
gether, and looks exactly like huge
serpent. 1t is about eight feet long
and about three inches in diameter,
and open at one end. The etrainer is
suspended on hook from the
rafters, the grated cessava is poured
in, and then keavy weight
is attached to the lower end,
which causes the strainer to contract
and SO expresses the juice. After it
has been thoroughly str, ined it 10
baked into large, fiat cakes, which
form the daily bread of the Carlb.
These appliances for making the
cassava bread, together with couple
of stools, table and the inevitable
hammock, comprise the furnishings
OF g house.
While walking through the town we
happened on the school. There were
about fifty Carib boys all orderly and
clean-looking, taught by young
Spaniard The text books are all Span
i-h, the sto and geography OF Hon
duras being the principal studies. We
had delightful ride on horseback
along the beach and up the Rio Crys'
tails, where we surprised number
of Carib women who were washing
clothes in the stream. There they
stood. kneedeep in the water, rinsine
the clothes and putting them to dry
on the stones. While riding up hill
and fording the river we gave the
horses the reins and allowed them tc
choose their own path, and, to the
utter CONSERVATION of the Carit
washerwomen, the horses walked
right over tie spotless clothes.
Tho beautiful crystal stream finds
it's source away up in tue mountains
and besides lending charm to tho
surrounding scenery, furnishes the
town If Truxillo with drinking water
It is brought into the city by the Carit
women in jugs, for which they charge
half real jug.
| It is strange sight to witness thes'
Carl women, with shawl, some
times of wool, but generally of silk
thrown, mantilla fashion, over thei
heads and their shoulders, arms ant
feet, being without any covering saw,
what Dame Nature provided.-[Ne'
Orleans Times-Democrat.